Iohannes Scott S. T. P. PRACTICAL DISCOURSES Upon several Subjects Vol. I. By IOHN SCOTT D. D. late Rector of St. Giles's in the Fields LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in S. Paul's Church-yard and Samuel Manship at the Ship near the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1697. To the Honorable WILLIAM MOUNTAGUE Esq THE following Discourses do breath the Spirit of the Author who being dead yet speaketh For they Carry in them a very sensible Concern for the honor of God and for that in which that honor has chiefly displayed it self to us the good of Mankind For it will be no hard Matter for a considering Reader to be Convinced that Misery whether here or hereafter is the fatal Consequence of wickedness and that to make our selves happy we must make our selves Good And therefore it is hoped that the seasonable publication of them may by God's blessing and by the sweet and forcible insinuations of that Candor Zeal and Reason with which they are inculcated at least assist a vitious Age to Recollect it self and may so far do so as to be a means to reclaim some of those who have blotted it with that Character And this hope is so much the greater because as we may rationally expect God's blessing upon our good Endeavors so we may the more firmly do so when such our Endeavors are warm and hearty The Good and Merciful God accompany the design of the Author with his Grace and extend that Grace to the utmost extent of the publication and by making both effectual turn our hopes into prophesie Sir The Relations of the deceased Author having observed your great respect and kindness to him and your diligent attendance upon his Ministry hope the Dedication of these excellent Reliques of his will be acceptable to you as they are like to be of singular use profit and advantage to all pious and good Christians The CONTENTS A Discourse concerning Bodily Exercise in Religion upon 1 Tim. 4 6. Page 1. A Discourse of the Necessity of a Publick National Repentance upon Ezek. 18. 30. P. 77. A Discourse concerning the meet Fruits of Repentance and the necessity of bringing forth such Fruits upon Matth. 3. 8. P. 140. A Discourse concerning a Death-bed Repentance upon Matth. 25. 10. P. 189. A Discourse concerning the great Evil of deferring Repentance upon Rev. 2. 21. P. 230. A Discourse of Submission to the Will of God upon Luke 22. 42. P. 268. A Discourse concerning Self-denyal upon Matth. 16 24. P. 305. A Resolution of that grand Case How a Man may know whether he be in a state of Grace and Favour with God upon 1 John 3. 7. P. 357. A Discourse concerning the Nature of Wilful Sins shewing how incessant they are with a good State or our being born of God upon 1 Joh. 3. 9. P. 384. A Discourse of the Excellency of the Christian Religion to procure Peace and Satisfaction of Mind upon John 14. 27. P. 415. A Discourse shewing that when Mens Minds are divided between God and their Lusts they must lead very anxious and unstable Lives upon James 1. 8. P. 454. 1 TIMOTHY IV. 6. Bodily exercise profiteth little but godliness is profitable unto all things having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come THE great Design of Christianity being to promote our future Happiness and qualify us for it Things are more or less valuable in its esteem as they more or less conduce to this great and excellent End And hence the Apostle tells us that of all the Virtues Christianity obliges us to Charity is the greatest 1 Cor. xiii 13. that is a sincere Love of God and an universal good Will to Men and the greatest it is upon this account because of all Virtues it is most congenial to the Heavenly State that being a State of endless Love and pure Friendship and all other Virtues are valued more or less proportionably as they partake of this Virtue of Charity To give Worth to our Faith it is necessary it should work by Love Galat. v. 6. To make our Knowledge acceptable it is necessary it should run into Love 1 Cor. viii 2 3. yea without Charity the Gift of Miracles Alms-giving and Martyrdom it self are Things of no value in the accounts of Christianity 1 Cor. xiii 1 2 3. Nay so much is this great Virtue designed by the Christian Religion that the Apostle tells us that the end of the Commandment is Charity 1 Tim. l. 5. that is all the Duties which the Commandment enjoyns are designed only as Means to advance and perfect our Love to God and Men And all Means you know are more or less excellent proportionably as they conduce to the Ends they are designed for Wherefore since our future Happiness is the ultimate End of Christianity and universal Love our most necessary Qualification for it it necessarily follows that the Goodness of all Religious Means consists in their Aptitude to abstract and purify our Affections to exalt and sublimate our Love and to propagate in us that godlike and heavenly Temper which is so necessary to qualify us for the Enjoyment of God and Heaven But alas how ordinary is it for Men to mistake their Means for their Ends and to value themselves upon doing those Things which if they be not directed to a farther End are altogether insignificant accounting those Things to be absolutely good which are but relatively so and which unless they conduce to that which is good are perfectly indifferent Of which we have too many sad Instances among our selves for how many are there who though they have nothing else to prize themselves for but only of their keeping of Fasts and looking sourly on a Sunday their hearing so many Sermons and numbering so many Prayers are yet bloated with as high Conceits of their own Sanctity and Godliness as if they had commenced Saints and were arrived to the highest degrees of Perfection And tho Pride and Malice Covetousness and Ambition are the only Graces they are eminent in yet shall you see these empty wretched Things pearched upon the Pinacle of Self-Conceit and from thence looking down upon poor moral Mortals as if they were Things of an inferior Species not worthy to be reckoned in the same Class of Beings with themselves Such flaunting Hypocrites it seems there have always been and in these later Times it is foretold they should abound for so the Apostle tells us 1 Tim. iv 1. that the Spirit speaketh expresly that in the later Ages there should arise a sort of People who departing from the Faith should give heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils who should forbid marriage and command Abstinence from Meats vers 3. that is as I suppose should place all their Religion in outward and bodily Severities which at best are only Means and Instruments of Religion and that in these they should pride themselves as if they were the only Saints of
saucy in our Language and irreverent in our Addresses to him But by what hath been said I think it is apparent that bodily Worship is of so much Account and Necessity in Religion that to neglect it is a Piece of great Injustice to God and an high Affront to his Majesty whereunto we owe the lowliest Homage and Adoration But after all it must be acknowledged that unless our bodily Worship be attended with an inward lively Sense of God with great and worthy Thoughts of him and suitable Affections towards him it is all but a perfect Pageantry which tho' it makes a goodly Shew hath nothing of Substance or Reality in it Nay if by those external Reverences we render him we do not express the inward Veneration of our Souls while we pretend to worship him we mock him to his Face and by offering him a Shell which hath no Kernel in it we only seek to put a Trick upon him to make him believe we honour and adore him when in reality we do but more demurely flout him and with our Mock-Obeysances affront him with greater Ceremony If therefore we do not bow our Hearts before him as well as our Knees in our most solemn Addresses to him we are but so many liveless Images of Prayer that like our Grandfathers Statues on their Tombs have our Hands and Eyes lift up to Heaven but no Soul to animate our Devotions But God expects that those that worship Him should approach him with pure and humble Minds with their Wills inspired with divine Affections and their Souls touched with an over-awing Sense of his Majesty without which he accounts all our bodily Adorations to be nothing but demure Scorns and complemental Mockeries and therefore upon this very Account God denounced most fearful Judgments against Israel because they drew near him with their mouths and with their lips did honour him when their hearts were removed far from him Isa. xxix 13. Sixthly and lastly Another sort of bodily Exercise that is of some tho' but little Account in Religion is a mere outward Form or Round of Religious Duties such as saying of our Prayers hearing the Word of God and receiving of Sacraments and the like which are all of them expresly enjoined by the Christian Religion as the Means by which we are to purge our Minds from all Impurity and Wickedness and to acquire those divine Habits of Piety and Vertue which are necessary to qualify us for eternal Life And without all doubt such Means they are as if rightly used will by the Blessing of God and their own natural Efficacy exceedingly â—onduce to those great and worthy Ends for which they were ordained For what Means can be more conducive to our Reformation and Amendment than constant and diligent Prayer for besides that hereby we move God to enable us to our Duty by his own Grace and Assistance by these our solemn Addresses to him we take an effectual Course to abstract our Minds from carnal and sensitive Things to excite and raise our Affections towards God and inspire our Souls with an awful Sense of his Majesty which are the most rational Antidotes we can take against the venomous Temptations of Sin How necessary is it to make us throughly good that we should seriously and diligently attend upon the Preaching and publick Ministries of God's Word the great End of which is to state and describe the Bounds of Christian Duty and to explain and enforce those mighty Motives which Christianity urges to oblige us to it both which are indispensably necessary to our Reformation because a Man cannot be good unless he knows his Duty and when he knows it he will not be good unless he be perswaded to it What can be more conducive to our Growth and Progress in all Christian Grace and Virtue than frequent Receiving of the Holy Sacrament which besides as it is a Channel and Conveyance of the Divine Grace and Assistance to all worthy Communicants doth sensibly represent to us one of the mightiest Arguments to Obedience in all the Christian Religion viz. the Death and Sacrifice of our blessed Redeemer For here we see his bloody Tragedy acted before our Eyes the breaking of his Body and the pouring out of his Blood for us being visibly represented to us which dismal Spectacle if we have any Remains of Ingenuity in us cannot but affect us both with Love to Him who suffered so deeply for us and with Horror against our Sins which brought those Sufferings upon Him and being thus affected how can we forbear vowing Revenge upon our Sins and perpetual Obedience to our most loving Redeemer which is one great End of this sacred Festival So that these outward Duties are not only necessary as they are enjoined by our Religion but also as they are effectual Means and Instruments of that internal Piety and Virtue which our Religion doth principally require and design and therefore doubtless it cannot but be a great Sin for any Christian to live in the ordinary Neglect of these instrumental Duties because in so doing he doth not only affront the Authority of that holy Religion to which he hath vowed Submission and Obedience but also rejects the Means of his own Recovery and Reformation and so doth openly declare himself a reckless profligate Creature one that neither is good nor ever intends to be so But yet after all it must be acknowledged that he that only prays and hears and receives Sacraments and places all his Religion in a perpetual Round of these outward Performances hath nothing of the Life and Spirit of true Religion in him For as I have already observed to you these Duties are intended only for Means and Instruments of that internal Purity of Mind and those Divine and Godlike Dispositions of Soul wherein the Life and Substance of Religion doth consist Now you know it is not barely the using of Means that either is or doth Good but the using them to some good End or Purpose as for instance Books are Means and Instruments of Learning but it is not barely the using of Books or turning over the Leaves of them that will make Men wise or learned but the using them so as to understand the Contents of them and acquaint our selves with the Things and Notions contained in them Thus Prayer and Hearing the Word of God and Receiving of Sacraments are doubtless excellent Means to make Men good and virtuous but barely to use them without any farther Intention is to do a thing that signifies nothing that neither is good in it self nor will do any good to us If we would use them to any Purpose we must use them to the End they are designed for or else we had as good not use them at all For we may as soon become good Scholars barely by turning over the Leaves of learned Books as we shall good Christians barely by praying and hearing and receiving If we do not pray to the End we may be
could not be if it did not abate for our Defects and admit us to be righteous in the main even while we are imperfectly so and that it doth so is apparent by the distinction it frequently makes between the less and the more Perfect still allowing both to be Righteous Thus it distinguishes between Babes and Men allowing both to be in Christ between the Weak and the Strong and Confirmed allowing both to be in the Faith And our Saviour himself speaking of some who upon receiving the Seed of the Gospel brought forth Thirty of others who brought forth Sixty and others a Hundred-fold doth yet allow them all to be good Ground Matth. 13. and Luke 19. 14. He as well allows him to be a good and faithful Servant who had improved his Tallent into Five as he who had improved his into Ten. From all which it is evident that the Gospel doth not judge of our main State by the Degrees but by the Reality of our Righteousness 2. It is to be premised that that which constitutes us Righteous Men in the Judgment of the Gospel is some internal vital Principle of Righteousness For as all other Things receive their Denomination from their Forms so it is from some internal Form of Righteousness that righteous Men receive their Denomination It is not the simple doing righteous Actions that constitutes a Man righteous for he may be a very bad Man not only while he doth that which is Righteous but also in the very doing of it Thus a Man may fast and pray only to gloss his Oppressions he may do an honest Action to disguise a knavish Design in which Case he sins in the doing of it because in the doing it he prophanes Religion by making it a Cloak for his Wickedness a plain Evidence that Actions which in themselves are materially good do partake of the Principles from whence they do proceed and receive their Form and Denomination from them seeing even good Actions may be infected by a bad Principle and derive into themselves the Malignity and Baseness of the Fountains from whence they flow And if without a righteous Principle our Actions cannot be righteous to be sure neither can we b cause we are as our Actions are Hence you may observe in the New Testament that good Men are generally denominated from some internal Form of Goodness they are said to be born of God and to have the seed of God remaining in them 1. Joh. 3. 9. and to be renewed in the Spirit of their Mind Eph. 4. 23. to be spiritually minded Rom. 8. 6. and to be transformed by the renewing of their Mind Rom. 12. 2. and to be partakers of the Divine Nature 2 Pet. 1. 4. all which do plainly denote that to constitute us righteous Men in the Sense of the Gospel there is necessarily required some internal Form and Principle of Righteousness 3. And lastly We must premise that Christianity being the Law or Rule of our Religion the internal Principle which in the Sense of this Law constitutes us Righteous must be strictly Religious that is it must be such as doth immediately respect God who is the great Object of all Religion For Religion in the strictest Sense is the Rule of Divine Worship and under this Notion of Divine Worship or Homage and Obedience to God Christianity exacts every Duty of us for it requires us to do all as unto God and to do all to the Glory of God i. e. in Obedience to him and out of a sincere Acknowledgment of his Authority over us and immutable Right to rule and command us And even those moral Virtues which do immediately respect our Neighbours and our selves are enjoyned as Duties unto God and bound upon us with religious Obligations So that now all the Acts and Functions of a good Life are adopted into the Rubrick of Christan Worship and required of us as Acts of Obedience to God from whence it follows that the Spring and Principle of those Acts must be strictly Religious immediately respecting God and his Authority over us it being impossible those Acts should be truly religious which do not proceed from a religious Principle These Things being premised I come now to lay down what that Principle is which in the Sense of Christian Religion constitutes us righteous Men. In general it is a considerate universal prevailing Resolution to obey God proceeding from our Belief of the Christian Religion For the better understanding of which I shall briefly explain the particular Terms of it 1. I say it is a Resolution 2. It is a Resolution of obeying God 3. It is a considerate Resolution 4. An universal and 5. A prevalent one 6. A Resolution of obeying God springing out of our Belief of the Christian Religion 1. It is a Resolution by which I exclude the Habit of Obedience from being the prime and constitutive Principle of Christian Righteousness For Christianity as was shewn before supposing great Imperfections and Infirmities even in those whom it allows to be righteous in the main if we would judge rightly of our own State by the Christian Rule we must take measure of our selves from that which is the lowest and most imperfect Principle of Righteousness and not conclude our selves to be unrighteous because we are not righteous to such a Degree but as for the habit of Obedience which consists in an inherent Promptness Facility and Easiness to obey it is so perfect a Principle as is not attainable but under a long Progress in Religion For when after a vicious Course of Life we begin to reform we are so far from being habituated to obey God that we obey him with Difficulty and strong Reluctancy and are fain to row against the Stream of our own Inclinations in which state we are far from having attained to an Habit or Promptness of obeying So that by making this the constitutive Principle of Christian Righteousness we exclude from the State of Righteousness all Beginners in Religion and do allow none to be faithful Servants but those who have conquer'd the difficulties of obeying The true Form or Principle therefore from which we receive the Denomination of righteous Men is that Point or Term from which we begin to be righteous and that is a righteous Resolution For Choice and Resolution is the Spring of all voluntary Actions and consequently from thence we begin to act righteously and in the pursuit of that we grow and improve into an habit of Righteousness Our first step is to resolve well our next to do well the uninterrupted Repetition of which will at length improve into an habit of well-doing I will arise says the Prodigal and go to my Father that was the first step of his Return and the vital Principle whence all his After-motions did proceed 2. It is a Resolution to obey God by which I exclude those good Resolutions from being the Christian Principle of Righteousness which have no respect at all to God but either
this Reason he that hath said do not commit adultery said also do not kill James 2. 10 11. i. e. it is the same Authority that forbids the one as well as the other and therefore tho' thou dost not the one yet if thou dost the other thou sinnest against the Authority of both Seeing therefore we are not accounted universally righteous by the Law of Christ unless we do universally obey it a partial Resolution to obey can never constitute us Righteous because such a Resolution will never make us universally obedient Then shall I not be ashamed saith David when I have respect unto all thy Commandments Psal. 119. 6. So that to make our Resolution a Christian Principle of Righteousness it is necessary that it should be universal i. e. of equal extent with that Law which is the Measure of our Righteousness that like a fruitful Womb it should be pregnant with every good Work and vertually contain in it every Particular that our Religion hath made our Duty 5. It must be a prevailing Resolution a Resolution of such Force as doth engage us to do what we resolve and actually prevails over all Temptations to the contrary For all the Vertue of a good Resolution consists in its Relation to Action because if that we resolve to do be not necessary it is indifferent whether we resolve to do it or no but if it be it must be done otherwise we had been as good never to have resolved to do it The goodness of our Resolution therefore consists in this that it is an Engagement to practise what we resolve and consequently if our Resolution to obey God be not prevalent enough to engage us to obey him it is so far from being a true Principle of Christian Righteousness that it is a meer insignificant Cypher For as that can be no Cause which produces no Effect so that can be no Principle of Righteousness which is not productive of it and if to make it a Principle of Righteousness it is necessary that it should be a prevalent Engagement to a righteous Life then it follows that when it ceases to be prevalent it ceases to be a Principle of Righteousness and consequently that whenever we do commit any Sin that is inconsistent with a prevailing Resolution to obey God we do for that Time cease to be righteous Men. But there are no Sins inconsistent with a prevailing Resolution to obey God but such as do prevail against it and actually over-power it and therefore as for those Weaknesses Surreptions and Surprizes which for Distinction-sake we call Sins of Infirmity either we do not consent to them and consequently they are so far from over-powering our good Resolution that they do not at all contest with it or if we do consent to them it is unawares before we can oppose our Resolution against them So that tho' upon Surprize they do win our Consent yet they do not win it from our good Resolution which in this suddain Hurry of Thoughts had not time to canvas for it but had Power enough to have obtained it had it had but Opportunity to prefer its Claim and therefore as for such Sins as these they may fairly comport with a prevailing Resolution of Obedience But then there are Sins of Wilfulness which proceed either from wilful Habits or from deliberate Choice and these are no more consistent with such a Resolution than one Contrary is with another in the same Degree For he who sins wilfully is prevalently resolved to sin and to be so and at the same time prevalently resolved to obey God is a Contradiction in Terms Whilst therefore Sin hath the Prevalence in us we are so long Servants of Sin and do so long cease to be Servants of Righteousness 'T is true there are Degrees of Wickedness and the longer a Man continues wicked the worse he will be but still he is a wicked Man who is more prevalently resolved to sin than to obey God and he who is so tho' but for an Hour or a Day is so long wicked as well as he who continues so for a Month or a Year He is not wicked indeed to so high a Degree and so may far more easily recover but from the Time that we deliberately consent to any known Sin to the Time that we repent of it we are wilful Sinners If we repent immediately we immediately recover into that good Estate from whence we were fallen and so our Wound is cured almost as soon as it is made For the proper Repentance of single Acts of wilful Sin is either to resolve not to repeat them or where it can be done to undo them again by Restitution But when our baffled Resolution to obey God is thus recover'd into a prevalent Engagement to obey him it revives into a living Principle of Righteousness but yet before we can reasonably conclude it is such we must make some Tryal of it for as it is certain that until it be Prevalent it is not a true Principle of Righteousness so it is certain that till for some time it hath actually prevailed we cannot be secure that it is prevalent That is not to be called a prevalent Resolution that for a Day or a Week puts us into a Fit of Religion and so expires such flashy Purposes are so far from being thorough Cures that they are only so many Intermissions of our Disease that always leave us as bad or worse than they found us But if upon sufficient Tryal we find that our Resolution doth hold against all Temptations and actually engage us to our Duty in despite of all Sollicitations to the contrary we may then safely conclude that it is that very vital Principle which in the Judgment of our holy Religion doth constitute us Righteous Men. And accordingly Matth. 21. 28 29 30. our Saviour compares those who might but did not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven to a Son that first resolved to go whither his Father commanded him but afterwards cooled and did not obey implying that the great Fault which spoiled his Resolution and rendred it insignificant was this that it was not firm and prevalent which had it been it had actually entered him in the Kingdom of Heaven 6. And lastly It must be a Resolution to obey God springing out of our Belief of the Christian Religion and this it is which renders it strictly and properly a Christian Principle of Righteousness 'T is true indeed if either we never heard of Christianity or it had never been proposed to us with sufficient Motives of Credibility our Infidelity would have been only our Misery but not our Crime and if upon a through Consideration of the Arguments of natural Religion and of the Good and Evil which naturally springs out of good and evil Actions we were effectually resolved to study the Will of God and so far as we understood it to obey it it had been no criminal Defect in our Resolution not to be founded upon
cannot sin because he is born of God FOR the right understanding of these Words it will be necessary to enquire first what is here meant by committing Sin secondly what is meant by being born of God thirdly in what sense he that is born of God cannot commit sin First what is here meant by committing sin I answer that this Phrase in the Writings of this our Apostle hath a special Energy and doth not denote the simple doing of any sinful Action tho' it be out of Ignorance Incogitance or Frailty nor doth it only denote an habitual Course and Custom of sinning wilfully but primarily the doing of any sinful Action whatsoever deliberately wilfully and presumptuously For as for the first it is not true that he that is born of God doth commit no sin at all seeing the best of God's Children are liable to be surpriz'd into evil Actions through their Weakness Ignorance or Inadvertency of all which there are some Remains even in the most purified Natures And as for the second viz. the habit of sinning wilfully tho' that in the Apostles Sense is not only to commit sin but to commit it in the most eminent Degree yet it is plain that it is the deliberate Acts of Sin that he here primarily intends for so Verse the 4th he that committeth sin transgresseth the Law for Sin is a Transgression of the Law which is plainly meant of every single Act of wilful Sin So ver 8. he that committeth sin is of the Devil that is he is therein an Imitator of the Devil which is true of every deliberate Act as well as of the Habit of Sin So here in the Text he that is born of God doth not commit sin that is understanding him still in the same Sense he doth not commit any wilful and deliberate Act of Sin 2. Our next Enquiry is what is here meant by being born of God To which I answer that to be born of another denotes in general our receiving the Beginning and Principle of our Life and Motion from him and consequently to be born of God is to receive from him through the Operation of his Grace and Spirit the Beginning and Principle of our spiritual Life and Motion viz. a considerate universal prevailing Resolution to obey God proceeding from our Belief of the Christian Religion When therefore God by the Influence of his Grace and Spirit hath wrought our Minds into such a Resolution then are we truly born of him as having herein received from him the Principle of a new Life and Motion And this the Apostle expresses by being transformed by the renewing of our mind Rom. 12. 2. i. e. having a new practical Judgment and Resolution of Soul begotten in us and this he elsewhere calls the renewing of the holy Ghost T it 3. 5. Upon which account we may very well be said to be born of God because it is from his blessed Spirit that we derive this Renewing which is the Principle of our spiritual Life and Motion Our last Enquiry is in what Sense this Assertion of the Apostle holds viz. That he who is thus born of God cannot sin To which I answer That this Expression he cannot relates to the state he is now in he cannot as he is one that is born of God and while he doth continue so for so the Phrase is frequently used in Scripture So Rom. 8. 7. The carnal mind cannot be subject to God not but the Mind which is now carnal may hereafter be subject unto God viz. when it is renewed and changed but it cannot be so while it continues carnal And in the same Sense he tells us in the next Verse that it cannot please God So Matth. 7. 18. a good Tree cannot bring forth evil Fruit neither can a corrupt Tree bring forth good Fruit which can import no more than this that whilst the good Tree continues good it cannot bring forth evil Fruits nor the corrupt Tree bring forth good Fruits whilst it continues corrupt not but that one may hereafter become evil and bring forth evil Fruits as well as the other may become a good Tree and bring forth good Fruits So that the meaning of he cannot sin is no more than this it is so utterly inconsistent with the State of one that is born of God to sin wilfully and deliberately that when ever he doth so he actually falls from that blessed State and for the time ceases to be born of God And hence the Reason assigned why a Man cannot sin wilfully and be born of God at the same Time is for his Seed remaineth in him that is because that Principle of new Life and Motion which the divine Spirit hath produced in him and which is nothing else but an universal prevailing Resolution of obeying God remains within his Breast and for a Man to be universally and prevalently resolved to obey God and at the same Time to sin wilfully is a Contradiction in Terms because whenever he sins wilfully he is prevalently resolved to disobey him And therefore seeing in every wilful Sin we are prevalently resolved to disobey God while we are so our Resolution to obey him which is the Seed and Principle of our divine Life must necessarily be extinguished and consequently till such time as by our Repentance we have revived and recovered it we must cease to be born of God He therefore who is born of God cannot sin wilfully because while he continues in this State his Seed remains in him which is no more reconcilable to our sinning wilfully than contraries are in the same Degree And therefore he adds he cannot sin because he is born of God that is his State is such as will no more admit him wilfully to disobey God than to be dead and alive in the same Moment But in pursuance of this Argument it will be necessary yet further to enquire what those wilful Sins are which the Apostle here declares to be inconsistent with a good State or which is the same thing with our being born of God the Resolution of which is of absolute necessity to enable Men to make a true Judgment of their own State whether it be good or bad And in order hereunto it will be necessary to premise the following Particulars 1. That by wilful Sin I mean the Acts as well as the Habits of Sin 2. That by wilful Habits of Sin I mean such as are contracted by wilful Acts and are wilfully retained and indulged 3. That by wilful Acts of Sin I do not mean all evil Actions which have any Degree of Will in them but only such as are deliberately chosen 4. That the same Actions may be Sins of Weakness and Sins of Wilfulness in the same or different Persons under different Circumstances 1. That by wilful Sins I mean the wilful Acts as well as Habits of Sin To be sure there is no Sin can be consistent with our being born of God for which the Gospel binds us over to
the Age whereas in truth they would prove the rankest Hypocrites that ever appeared in a religious Vizard And of these he exhorts Timothy carefully to forewarn his Flock and for his own part to reject their profane and ridiculous Fables and rather to exercise himself in true substantial Godliness than in such outward bodily Rigors and Severities for which he subjoyns this general Reason for bodily exercise profiteth little that is mere outward bodily Exercise in Religion abstracted from inward Piety and Godliness is of very little avail in a Religious Account For the bodily Exercise here spoken of it seems was such as had some little Profit attending it and consequently was such as had some general Tendency to Good and was improveable to some advantage had it been wisely managed and directed For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here translated little is not so to be understood as if it signified nothing because it is here opposed to something that is greater viz. to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bodily Exercise profiteth little but Godliness is profitable for all things and therefore this bodily Exercise must profit something though less than Godliness which is profitable for all things As when Plato says 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrates must be a little attended but Truth a great deal more And if it be such an Exercise as doth profit a little then it must be such as is Religious and is of some small account in Religion In the Prosecution of this Subject therefore I shall do these two things I. Shew you what this outward or bodily Exercise in Religion is II. In what Cases it is that it profits little I. Wherein doth this bodily Exercise consist I answer it consists in these six things 1. In an outward visible Profession of Religion 2. In bodily Severities upon Religious Accounts 3. In bodily Passions in Religion 4. In bodily Worship 5. In bodily Fluency and Volubility in Religious Exercises 6. In a mere outward Form or Round of Religious Duties 1. It consists in an outward visible Profession of Religion That we should make a visible Profession of the true Religion when it is sufficiently proposed to us is an unquestionable Duty and that for this Reason because not to profess visibly what we believe to be the true Religion is an open disowning of God who is the immediate Object of all true Religion For he that believes that this is the Will of God and yet is either ashamed or afraid openly to avow and acknowledge it declares that he is either ashamed of God or that he fears Man more than God both which are highly impious Besides by our visible owning of Religion we propose it to others who by our Example may be perswaded to embrace it as well as we and it is our Duty not only to entertain the true Religion our selves but so far as in us lies to propagate it to others that so diffusing our Light round about us others may be directed to Heaven by it as well as our selves This therefore is of some Account with God that we visibly profess the true Religion but if this be all we do it will profit us but very little For if we do not own Religion in our Actions while we profess it in our Words we contradict our selves our Practice gives the Lye to our Creed and our wicked Lives baffle our holy Profession for while a Man acts contrary to the Rules of his Religion he doth as effectually disown it as if he should openly renounce his Baptism and make a publick Recantation of Christianity For as our Profession of Religion is performed by a visible signification of our Belief of it and as this may be signified by our Actions as well as our Words so in effect we do renounce Religion when we give any visible signification that we do not believe it and this we do as well when we act like Infidels as when by Words we declare our Infidelity For by our Deeds we may signify our Minds as well as by our Words and he that acts as if he did not believe doth give a more convincing Argument of his Infidelity than all his Words or Professions can be of the contrary because it is rationally supposable that a Man will rather pretend to believe what he doth not than that he will act contrary to his own Belief and Judgment it being a greater degree of Violence to our selves to act contrary to what we do believe than to pretend to believe what we do not So that it is not all our Talk and verbal owning of Religion that will serve the end of a visible Profession which is so to own God as to induce others to own him as well as our selves because he that denies God in his Actions will never be able to induce others to believe that he doth sincerely own him in his Words and Profassions Wherefore unless we will live up to the Rules of our Religion we were as good not to make any visible Profession of it for our Profession will serve no good Ends of Religion it may indeed disgrace it in the Opinion of those who measure its Goodness by the Lives of its Votaries for either they will think that our Religion teaches us to live as we do and that will make them abhor it or else they will imagine that notwithstanding our Profession we do not believe it and that will make them suspect it to be a Cheat and Imposture So that for any Good Christianity is like to reap from wicked Christians professing it it were highly desirable that they would renounce their Baptism and openly declare themselves Atheists or Infidels because by their Actions they blaspheme the Religion they profess and by assuming to themselves the holy Name of Christians they do but more openly profane it 2. Another sort of bodily Exercise that is of some though but little Account in Religion is our voluntary undergoing of bodily Rigours or Severities upon the score of Religion There is doubtless a very wise use to be made of bodily Severities in Religion provided they be but used with that Prudence and Caution as they ought to be for they are excellent Remedies against many of our inordinate fleshly Inclinations to came our extravagant Appetites and to render them more tractable to the Commands of Reason and Religion besides that in the general they are of singular Use to wean our Souls from the Pleasures of the Body which do often corrupt the palate of the Mind and render it incapable of relishing divine Enjoyments For if we indulge to our Appetites all those lawful Pleasures which they crave our Souls will be apt to contract too great a Familiarity with the Flesh and to be so taken up with the Delights and Satisfactions of it as to neglect those diviner Pleasures for which they were created and which are more natural and congenial to them and considering that in our future State we must live without these
Bodies and take leave of all the Pleasures of them it is very requisite that we should now before-hand wean and abstract our selves from the Enjoyments of corporeal Sense that so when we come to part with them we may know how to be happy without them and be fit to live the Lives of naked Spirits And therefore we find that there has scarce been any Religion whatsoever pretending to qualify Men for another Life but hath imposed Fasting and Abstinence and other bodily Severities as proper Means to lustrate and purify the Mind and to prepare it for immediate Converses with God and separated Spirits but then the Consequence was that the over-strict Imposition of these Instrumentals of Religion occasioned a world of Superstition for being so strictly imposed they obtained so far in the Opinion of the World as to be reckoned among the Essentials of Religion and counted absolutely good and in their own Nature pleasing and grateful unto God which possibly by degrees introduced those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 horrid and bloody Mysteries into the Heathen Religion For Mankind being once possessed with such an Opinion of God as to think he was pleased and delighted to see his poor Creatures afflict and punish themselves it was easie from thence to infer that he would be much more pleased to see them butcher themselves and sprinkle his Altars with their own Blood And as this over-weening Opinion did probably introduce humane Sacrifices into the Heathen Religion so it is certain that it hath introduced sundry false Doctrines into the Romish as particularly that Fasting and Whipping our selves and going on Pilgrimages are meritorious Things that by them we expiate our Sins and make Satisfaction to the Justice of God as if the Guilt that binds us over to eternal Perdition were to be expiated by a sound Whipping or a short Pilgrimage were a proportionable Commutation for the eternal Penance of Hell Fire But these are the vain Imaginations of Men who would faign impose Laws upon God and prescribe to him the Measures of Punishment who would do as wickedly as they please and suffer what they please for so doing But let us not deceive our selves if we will choose to sin it is reasonable that that God whom we offend by our Sin should choose and appoint our Punishment It is by no means fit that Criminals should be their own Iudges for if they were they would have very little Reason to be afraid of sinning because they would be obliged to suffer no more for it than what they pleased themselves but the Right of punishing is in the offended Party and therefore if we will offend God by violating his Laws we have no right to choose our own Penance but must whether we will or no submit to what He thinks fit to inflict upon us and what that is he hath told us before-hand even everlasting Expulsion from his Presence into the Society and Portion of Devils and damned Spirits So that for us to expect to attone and satisfy God by little voluntary Penances of our own is just as unreasonable as if a Murderer should cut off his little Finger and thereupon expect to be excused from the Penalty of the Law And as these bodily Severities are no Expiations of our Sins so neither are they in their own Nature pleasing and grateful unto God for he is a good God and an universal Lover of all his Creation and consequently can be no farther pleased with the Sufferings and Afflictions of any of his Creatures than as they are necessary either to do them good or to make them exemplary to others or to vindicate the Honour of his own violated Laws neither of which Ends are served by voluntary Penances and Severities as such if they be not subordinated to the Ends of Virtue and Religion For what can Fasting signify if it be not designed to famish our Lusts Can our hungry Bowels be a delightful Spectacle to that God who feeds the young Ravens and takes so much care to provide for all his Creation What Virtue is there in the Chastning of our Bodies if it be not intended to humble and mortify our Souls Do we think that that God who is so zealous of our Welfare can be recreated with our Miseries or take pleasure in our tragical Looks and bloody Shoulders 'T is true so far as these things are Instruments of Good to us they are pleasing unto God even as all other Instruments of Religion but it is not the suffering of our Bodies he is pleased with but the good which it doth our Souls but if they do our Souls no good if they do not purify our Affections and wean us from fleshly Desires and make us more fit for the heavenly State they are as insignificant in the Account of God as the paring of our Nails or the clipping of our Hair 3. Another sort of these bodily Exercises that are of some though but little account in Religion is bodily Passions in Religion There is I confess an excellent Use to be made of our bodily Passions in the Exercise of our Religion provided we do not place our Religion in them for if we do they will betray us into the grossest Cheats and Impostures For in the general we find that our Passions do wing our intellectual Faculties and render them more intense and expedite in their Operations For whilst the Soul and Body are united to one another there is a mutual Reflowing and Communication of Passions between them insomuch that whensoever the Soul is any ways affected with any Object there immediately follows a suitable Perturbation or Passion in the Body and then this Passion of the Body as it is grateful or ingrateful to it doth more vigorously affect the Soul with Love or Aversation and then the Soul being thus reaffected and incited by the bodily Passion will more vehemently pursue or shun the Object which caused its first Motion or Affection When therefore our Souls and Bodies do thus sympathize with each other in the Exercises of Religion we must necessarily perform them with greater Vigour and Intension But to make this more plain to you I will briefly instance in those four great Passions of Religion viz. Love and Hatred and Sorrow and Ioy. As for that of Love when the Soul is affected with God or Virtue or any other amiable Objects of Religion immediately there follows a sweet and grateful Passion in the Body For the Heart being dilated towards the beloved Object puts the Blood and Spirits into a free and placid Motion which diffuses a certain agreeable Heat into the Breast and invigorates the Brain with a flood of active Spirits and then the Soul being sensible of this grateful Emotion in the Body is thereby more vigorously incited to pursue those amiable Objects wherewith she was first affected And so for Hatred when the Soul is practically convinced by the Arguments of Religion of the Odiousness of any Evil it forbids the
Saviour grieve whom he seems to love so dearly And this is Humiliation which is the third Stage in this imaginary Road of Conversion And now the Man having set up so gay an Image of Christ in his Fancy and felt within himself such sensible Pangs of Love towards him and Grief for the Affronts and Unkindnesses he hath offered him his amorous Imagination will presently suggest to him that doubtless so sweet a Saviour cannot but be conquered with all these passionate Indearments and smitten with a reciprocal Love upon so many feeling Expressions of his Kindness towards him and being possest with this Imagination he will presently fancy his dear Image of Christ into all the Postures of a transported Lover smiling upon him weeping over him and spreading out his Arms to embrace him upon which there will follow such a sweet Effusion of his Spirits towards his enamoured Saviour that he will fansy himself to be leaping into his Arms and rolling in his Bosom and resting and leaning and relying upon him And now his Fancy having carried him to his Iourney 's End and lodged him in the Embraces of his Saviour O the Joy and Ravishment he feels his Heart pant through Excess of Delight and is ready to break with its own Raptures And thus you see how this whole Method of Conversion may be easily transacted by an active and melancholy Fancy And as it may be so I doubt not but many times it is for how many Men are there who strongly imagine themselves to have been converted that yet are never the better for it being still as averse unto God and true Goodness as ever they were before nay and many times are so far from being better'd by their Conversion that they are a great deal the worse for it for instead of forsaking all Sin which is that wherein true Conversion doth consist they only shift their Vices and many times in laying one Devil they conjure up seven worse in the room of it Perhaps before they fansied themselves to have been converted they were openly lewd and profane they would swear and be drunk and wallow in Sensuality and Voluptuousness but notwithstanding these beastly and damnable Crimes they had some very amiable Qualities in them they were courteous and affable and kind and obliging faithful in their Professions and just and honest in their Dealings but now alas by passing through these dismal Stages of pretended Conversion they have contracted such a mass of melancholy Humours as hath quite soured their sweet and lovely Tempers into Pride and Envy Peevishness and Faction Insolence and Censoriousness and all the other Ingredients of a sullen and unsociable Nature So that though now indeed they will not be openly lewd and profane as they were before yet which is a great deal worse they will be false and ill-natur'd and griping and ungovernable and which is worst of all they will be all this while under the Disguise of Religion and the Patronage of a deceived Conscience so that whereas their former Vices had only the Possession of their Wills but not of their Consciences these are seized of both which renders their Condition the more dangerous For heretofore Virtue and Religion had a strong Party within them there being a Law in their Minds that warred against the Law in their Members but now all is subdued to the Dominion of their Sins and their Wills and Consciences like Simeon and Levi become Brethren in Iniquity Whilst therefore Men place their Religion in such artificial Trains of Passion they will be liable to all manner of Cheats and Impostures For the Generality of Men being ignorant of the Power of Melancholy and of the Frame and Structure of their own Bodies if their Fancies are but tinctured with Religion they will be apt to attribute every extraordinary Emotion they feel to the immediate Influence of the Spirit of God and to account that to be Grace and Inspiration which is a mere necessary Effect of Matter and Motion and being once possessed with this Conceit they lye open to all the Follies of Enthusiasm for now nothing will satisfy them but Heats of Fancy and Transports of Passion and whilst they should be attending to the sober Dictates of Scripture and right Reason they will be looking for Incomes and Impulses and secret Manifestations and consequently will be apt to interpret every odd Whimsey for an inward Whisper from Heaven and every brisk Emotion of their Spirits for an immediate Smile of God's Countenance than which I dare boldly say there is nothing more mischievous to Religion or contrary to the Life and Power of it For Religion is a wise a still and silent thing that consists not in Frisks of Fancy and Whirlwinds of Passion but in a divine Temper of Mind and an universal Resignation of our Wills to God and this not only in intermittent Fits of Passion but in the midst of cool Thoughts and calm Deliberations For true Religion is a State of a fixt and constant Nature that doth not come and go like the Colours of a blushing Face but is the natural and true Complexion of the Soul How religious soever therefore we may be in our passionate Heats and Transports it it altogether insignificant unless the standing Temper of our Minds be good and our Religion be settled in our Natures For though it cannot be denied but these our bodily Passions do profit something as they are useful Instruments of Religion yet I think it is very apparent from what hath been said that he who places his Religion in them doth but deceive his own Soul 4. Another sort of bodily Exercise that is of some though but little Account in Religion is Fluency and Volubility in Religious Exercises or a Readiness of wording our Thoughts in proper and affecting Expressions either in Prayer to God or in speaking of God and Things divine the proper Use of which is this that in Prayer it is apt to exoite and kindle our devout and religious Affections For besides that Scantiness of Words in Prayer doth divert the Mind by putting it to the Trouble of inventing new Expressions to clothe its Thoughts and Desires which because of its Inability to attend many things at once must needs interrupt its Zeal and Intention and so make Breaks and Chasms in its Devotions whereas when a Man expresses himself easily and fluently so that his Words keep pace with his Desires and Affections he will be able to keep his Thoughts more intent and to fix himself upon God with all the united Vigour of his Mind which not being disturbed with the Difficulty of expressing its Desires will be the more at leisure to intend them that so its Devotions may flow secundo flumine in a more easie and undisturbed Current besides which I say we all find by Experience that proper and fluent Expressions are in their own Nature apt to warm and heighten our Affections which nothing hath a greater Influence in than
Words and Talk but in Life and Action and therefore St. Paul tells the Corinthians some of whom it seems had too great an Opinion of his Way of Religious Rhetorication that he would come among them and know not the speech of them that were puffed up but the power for the Kingdom of God saith he consisteth not in word but in power 1 Cor. iv 19 20. Fifthly Another sort of bodily Exercise that is of some though but little Account in Religion is outward and bodily Worship There is no doubt but we ought when we are worshipping God to signify the profound sense that we have of his Majesty and Greatness by outward Adorations and an humble and lowly Demeanour For though we may signify to God the Honour and Worship that we owe him by the internal Acts of our Mind by our Love and Fear and Hope and Admiration because he sees our Hearts and discerns the most secret Motions of our Souls yet since to him we owe the Members of our Bodies as well as the Faculties of our Minds it is very reasonable that we should worship him with both that both our Bodies and Minds should offer the Tribute of Homage which they owe to the Fountain of their Beings that so having each of them a share in the Bounties of God they may be Co-partners too in the Returns of Gratitude to him And though the internal Acts of our Minds do sufficiently signify unto God our Esteem and Veneration of Him yet it is highly reasonable especially in our publick Addresses to him that we should signify it to Men also that they may be excited by our Example to glorify God and to acknowledge and adore the infinite Perfections of his Nature and we have no other way to signify to Men our Veneration of God but only by corporeal Actions that is by such Actions or Gestures of the Body as either by Nature or by Custom are significant of our inward Esteem and Adoration of him And this without doubt is a Part of Natural Religion forasmuch as there never was any People of any Religion whatsoever but what have always expressed their Veneration of the Divinities whom they owned by such external Reverences as were customary amongst them And accordingly we are enjoined in Scripture to offer up unto God the Homage of our Bodies as well as of our Souls to worship and bow down and kneel before the Lord our Maker Psal. xcv 6. and to glorifie him with our Souls and Bodies which are his 1 Cor. vi 20. And when the Devil solicited our Saviour with the Promise of all the Kingdoms of the World to bow down and worship him that is to render him external Homage and Reverence our Saviour rejects the Motion with an it is written thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve Matth. iv 10. which Words must be understood of external as well as internal Worship otherwise his Answer is no wise pertinent to the Devil's Proposals which extended only to external Worship and Adoration And as bodily Worship is enjoined by express Precept so it is warranted by the concurrent Examples of all holy Men for in the Old Testament you have almost as many Examples of it as there are Instances of devout and religious Persons and so observant were the Jews of all external Reverence in their Religious Exercises that to fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker seems to have been Proverbial of their Prayers and Publick Worship And lest any Man should imagine these bodily Reverences to have been Part of that Ceremonial Worship that was abolish'd by the Gospel there are sufficient Examples of it recorded in the New Testament both to excite and warrant our Imitation For even the blessed Iesus himself who thought it no Robbery to be equal with God yet being in the Form of a Servant he thought it no scorn to kneel and prostrate himself before him for thus when he was in his last Agony it is said that he fell on his face and prayed Matth. xxxvi 39. which in those Eastern Countries was a Signification of the profoundest Reverence and afterwards when having awoke his Disciples he returned to his Prayer again St. Luke tells us that he fell upon his knees and prayed Luke xxii 41. Thus of St. Stephen when he was breathing out his Soul in that hearty Prayer for his Enemies it is said that he kneeled down and cried with a loud voice Lord lay not this Sin to their Charge Acts vii 60. So also St. Peter when he came to raise Tabitha from the dead is said to kneel down and pray Acts ix 40. And St. Paul acquainting the Ephesians how earnestly he prayed for them thus expresses himself for this Cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Ephes. iii. 14. And when he was going to Rome and had taken his last Farewel of the Brethren at Miletum it is said that he kneeled down and prayed with them Acts xx 36. And how loudly soever some of our new-fashioned Christians may explode external Reverence under a Pretence of worshipping God in a more spiritual Manner it is certain that there never was any thing even externally more devout and solemn than the Religious Assemblies of the Primitive Christians for generally at the Reading of their publick Liturgies the whole Congregation kneeled down upon the bare Floor with their Heads uncovered their Eyes lift up to Heaven and their Hands stretched forth in fashion of a Cross and then the whole Congregation being composed into a deep Silence the Minister began the publick Service in a most serious and humble manner not throwing about his Prayers at random with a clamorous wild and confused Voice but pronouncing them with a most decorous Calmness and Modesty the People in the mean time demeaning themselves so solemnly and uniformly that you would have thought the whole Assembly to have been animated with one Soul and that Soul to have been nothing else but a vital Sense of the adorable Majesty and supereminent Perfections of God So heavenly wide was the Primitive Pattern from the Rudeness and Irreverence of our modern Devotions that I doubt not should those blessed Martyrs and Confessors of our holy Religion arise from their Graves and come into our publick Assemblies they would suspect that we met together rather to be worshipp'd by God than to worship him our usual Postures being much fitter for Iudges than for Supplicants and such as rather bespeak us to be receiving Petitions from God than offering up Prayers to him For what Sign do we give that we come to worship the great Majesty above when we rudely squat upon our Seats with our Hats half on as if we thought it too great a Condescension to uncover our Heads and kneel before the Lord our Maker and that we made not bold enough with him unless we treated him as our Fellow and it were a piece of holy Familiarity to be
bodily Exercise are no farther profitable than as they conduce to a holy Life and internal Purity and Goodness which is that alone by which these great Advantages are to be obtained so that tho' they profit something yea very much as they are Means of Godliness yet compared with Godliness it self they profit but very little because these are only instrumental to make us godly but it is Godliness alone that reconciles us unto God and perfects our Natures and qualifies us for Heaven In these four Respects therefore these kinds of bodily Exercise do in comparison with Godliness profit but very little 1. As to the reconciling us to God 'T is true this bodily Religion is instrumental to reconcile us unto God so far as it tends to purify our Minds and to inspire us with a divine and God-like Nature but farther than this it hath no Influence at all upon it for there is nothing can reconcile God to us or us to God but only a mutual Likeness and Agreement While we continue in our Sins we cannot love God our Nature being repugnant to His who is infinitely holy and pure and good nor can He love us His Nature being repugnant to ours which is vile and wicked and unreasonable And how can two Natures be reconciled which have such mutual Antipathies to each other How can we love him whilst we are so prevalently averse to all that is lovely and amiable in Him and so unreasonably fond of every thing that He hates and abhors Doubtless while there is such a Contrariety between God and us it is impossible we should love him without hating our selves Hence the Apostle tells us that the carnal Mind is not only an enemy but that it is enmity it self to God Rom. viii 7. It is Spight and Rancor in the Abstract being as repugnant to His pure and holy Nature as Heaven is to Hell or Light to Darkness And the same Apostle gives us an Account of this Enmity and shews us from whence it doth arise Col. i. 21. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works These are the Make-baits that infuse into our Souls a secret Enmity to God by inspiring them with such Dispositions as are altogether repugnant to the Purity and Heliness of his Nature and there is nothing will extinguish these wicked Dispositions from whence our Enmity to God doth arise but only the contrary Habits of Virtue and true Goodness So that all our bodily Exercises in Religion do no otherwise tend to reconcile our Minds to God than as they are instrumental to destroy the Body of Sin in us and to beget in us a Divine and God-like Nature which if they do not effect they will leave us at as great a distance from God as ever they found us and after all our Professions and bodily Severities our rapturous Passions in Religion and fluent Strains of Devotion after our Hearing and Praying and Receiving of Sacraments we shall be found as utter Enemies to God as ever we were before For there is nothing can reconcile the Mind of a Man to God but only a thorough Conformity and Agreement in Nature with him And as we cannot be reconciled to God without being godly so neither can God be reconciled to us 'T is true he bears a hearty Good-will to all his Creation and earnestly desires the Welfare of every Being that he hath made capable of any degree of Happiness and there is no Man whatsoever excluded from this his universal Benevolence which with out-stretched Arms embraces the whole Creation But it is impossible he should love any so as to be pleased with or delighted in them but only those that are good for tho' his Love be terminated upon infinite Objects yet it is founded upon one unchangeable Reason and that is true Goodness which is the only Motive of wise and reasonable Love Thus he loves Himself not purely because he is Himself for that would be rather an Instinct than a reasonable Love but because he is good and he loves Himself above all other Things not out of a blind unreasonable Fondness to himself but because he knows Himself to be the highest and most perfect Good And if upon an impossible Supposition he were less good than he is he would doubtless love himself less than he doth but because his own Essence is the fairest Copy and most perfect Idea of Goodness therefore if he love reasonably he must love Himself most and consequently love all other things proportionably as they approach and resemble Himself in Goodness and Purity and Holiness For if he love himself best because he is most good he must necessarily love all other things proportionably as they are more or less good and indeed he could not love Himself infinitely should he love us for any other Reason but that for which he loves Himself For he can love Himself no farther than he hath Reason for it and therefore if he had other Reasons to love us beyond what he hath to love Himself he would not love Himself infinitely because he would not have infinite Reason for it So that it is plain God loves Himself and us for the same general Reason And as he doth not love Himself but because he is good so he doth not love us meerly because we are such and such Men out of a peculiar Fondness to our individual Persons but because we resemble Him in that Goodness and Purity for which he loves Himself For one of these three things we must say That either God loves us for no Reason at all which would be a degrading of his most wise Love into a foolish Fondness or else that he loves us for our Sins which would be to make Him love different Objects Himself and us upon contrary Reasons or that he loves us for our Goodness and Conformity to his own most pure and perfect Nature This therefore is that alone that will reconcile God to us and without this all our bodily Religion is insignificant Tho' we should profess Religion with the Constancy of Martyrs and our whole Lives were a continued Rapture of Religious Passions tho' we should fast our selves into Skeletons and pray till our Knees clave to the ground tho' we should live upon Sacraments and hear as many Sermons as there are hours in the Day yet if upon all this we do not grow more charitable and benevolent more honest and temperate more humble and heavenly minded it will be all to no purpose for when all is done there is nothing but true Goodness can indear us to the good God So that it is apparent that notwithstanding all our bodily Exercises so long as we continue in our Sins there is so vast a Gulf between God and us that neither we can go to Him nor he come to us and unless God alters his Nature by becoming impure as we are impure or we alter ours by becoming pure as He is pure so immense
to correct and reform them how is it possible he should ever be the better for it when he moves not a step forward from the corrupt and degenerate State of his nature but only dances round in a Circle and sins and repents and repents and sins and at last still returns to the same point The only way to reform our Nature and subject its Passions and Appetites to its Reason is to live well and regulate our Actions by the Laws of Reason and Righteousness by this we shall by degrees tame and reduce our irregular Inclinations and readvance our Reason to its native Throne and Dominion by forcing our selves as we must do at first to the Practice of Vertue and Religion we shall by degrees acquire vertuous Dispositions and those will improve into vertuous Habits and those in the end will grow to Perfection But if we only condemn our Sins and resolve against them but do not actually renounce and forsake them instead of bettering our Nature we shall more and more debauch and deprave it and be still declining from bad to worse and from worse to worse till at last our Disease becomes desperate and incurable So that it is indispensibly necessary you see that we should bring forth Fruits meet for Repentance because unless we do it is impossible our Repentance should ever accomplish the Work it is designed for that it should heal and reform our nature extinguish its vicious Inclinations and adorn it with those Graces wherein its Beauty and Perfection consists and we were every whit as good not to repent at all as to repent so as to be never the better for it And now give me leave to conclude this Argument with a few Inserences 1. From hence I infer what a ridiculous thing it is for Men to make a fond Pretence of zeal for Religion while the direct Contraries to all the natural Fruits of Repentance do most visibly appear in their Lives and Conversations I confess of all the offices that belong to a Preacher I am naturally the most averse to that of Reprehension I do not love to expose Mens Faults and rake in their filthy Dunghils and 't is not only my Charity to Mankind but also the Indisposition of my Nature to find fault that makes me so heartily wish O would to God that Men were once so good as to need no Reprehension that so we might have nothing to do but to praise and incourage them to excite them to go on with the Comforts of Religion and the just Applauses and Encomiums of their Vertues But alas we live in an Age that would make a Stone to speak and force any Man of any Conscience in despite of all the Candor and Modesty of his nature to cry aloud against the fulsom Hypocrisies and Impostures that look through our most glorious Pretences to Religion For for God's sake Sirs is it not a Shame a burning Shame to hear a Company of professed Atheists and notorious Knaves set up for Zealots and Reformers and raise a Clamour for Liberty of Conscience and pure Ordinances as for the sober and pious Dissenters I can bear their mistakes with as much Tenderness and Compassion as any Man and can make them as large Allowances as I could reasonably desire for my self if I were in their Condition But when I see Men rank themselves under the Banners of Religion that live in open Hostility to its Commands and Precepts that make no Conscience of blaspheming the Name of God traducing his Vicegerents and Representatives defaming and defrauding their Neighbours and exposing the most Sacred and Serious things to Scorn and Derision I cannot but suspect that there is Mischief behind the Curtain what zealous Appearances soever they may make upon the Stage For it can never enter into my Head and I wonder how it should into any Bodies else that those Men should ever design well to Religion whose Principles and Practices are so openly irreligious They may pretend Religion for that is so venerable a Name that 't will serve to set a fair Colour upon the ugliest Intentions but tho' we may be deceived by a well disguised Hypocrisy yet sure we can never believe that Profaneness is in earnest when it pretends to be zealous for Religion and a through Reformation O would to God that Men would at last be so honest as to appear what they are or at least not be so ridiculous as to pretend the quite contrary to what they appear it would make any honest heart bleed to see how Religion how the Protestant Religion is rendred cheap and vile by the impudent Pretences which bad Men make to it Men whose Lives are bad enough to disgrace Popery it self and who are Protestants only because they are not Papists In the name of God Sirs what have you to do with any Religion and much more with the Protestant which by its pure and honest Principles defies and renounces you which abominates your designs and disavows your Actions and blushes to see how you Profane and Scandalize it by pretending Friendship to and Familiarity with it For what will strangers think of it that understand not its Principles when they hear such as you claim such an intimate Acquaintance with it how prone will they be to suspect that 't is a Religion for your tooth and that it shelters and patronizes you in all your Wickedness wherefore for God's sake be at length so just to the Reputation of that Religion you pretend so much zeal for as either to bring forth the Fruits of it by living up to its Principles or not concern your selves any farther about it For this I am sure of while such as you pretend to it it loses much more by the Disgrace which your Lives do cast upon it then ever it is like to gain by your zeal and your Clamour for it 2. Hence I also infer how extreamly insufficient that Repentance is which the Church of Rome doth frankly approve and allow of which is such as plainly evacuates and supersedes the Necessity of bringing forth the natural Fruits of Repentance as any one may easily apprehend that will but take the pains impartially to consider the Chain of that Churches Principles For first the Council of Trent teaches that Attrition which is nothing but a Sorrow for Sin proceeding from the Fear of Punishments doth dispose Men to receive Grace in the Sacrament of Penance and that all the Sacraments of the Gospel of which Penance is one do actually confer grace upon those that are disposed for it So that if he hath but the Grace to be afraid of Hell and to be sorry that he is in Danger of it it is but confessing his Sins to a Priest and undergoing a short trifling Penance and upon a few words of Absolution he shall presently be dubbed a true Penitent and be as effectually instated in the Favour of God as if he had brought forth all the Fruits of Repentance And
this Bellarmine tells us is the current Judgment of all their Divines which if it be true poor Iudas had very ill luck to be damned for according to this Doctrine he was throughly disposed for Iustification it being out of mere Attrition that he hanged himself so that had he had but a Priest to have administered Penance and Absolution to him that Grace that made him hang himself would have intitled him to Heaven 'T is true indeed they tell us that there is a certain Penance which Men must undergo for their sins in this Life and that if they should not perform what is imposed upon them or if what is imposed should not be sufficient to satisfy Gods Justice they must be forced to make it up by their Sufferings in Purgatory But even against this too that Church hath contrived an excellent Remedy and that is the Treasury of the superabundant Merits of Christ and the Saints of which at very reasonable Rates Men may purchase such a share as will immediately pay off all their Purgatory scores how great soever their present Sins and how small soever their present Penances are For out of this Treasury of Merit you may have Indulgence for a Hundred a Thousand or a Hundred Thousand Years and if this will not satisfy you may besides this have full Indulgence fuller Indulgence and fullest Indulgence and 't is impossible you should ever want Merit to keep your Soul out of Purgatory if you have but Money and Hearts to pay for it But if you should still be doubtful you may secure all if you please by listing your self into an holy Confraternity for if you will but turn Brother of St. Francis his Cord you shall presently be intitled to such a stock of Indulgencies as all the Sins you can commit will never be able to out-spend For at your first putting on this sacred Implement you have as full and as effectual Pardon as was ever vouchsafed in the Sacrament of Baptism And afterwards should you fall into mortal Sin 't is but taking so much Pains as to walk after the monthly Procession and you shall have a plenary Indulgence which shall attend your holy Cord to the very Article of your Death Besides which you shall have your share in all the superabundant Merits of the Saints of the Order of Saint Roses and Saint Clara's and Saint Francis himself who by preaching to Beasts and teaching Larks and Swallows their Chatechism and silly Sheep to bleat out their Canonical Hours with sundry other such like holy Feats could not fail to treasure up a vast stock of Merits in the common Bank of his Fraternity Or if you would be surer yet you may enter your self a Brother of the holy Fraternity of the 150 Beads of St. Dominick where for saying over 150 Ave Maries and 15 Pater Nosters in a week you shall not only be allowed your Dividend of the superabundant Merits of all the Saints from Adans and as many Indulgencies as you can possibly have occasion for your self but such an overplus as will be sufficient to redeem 115 Souls yearly out of Purgatory And it would be a very hard case if with all this tackle you should go to Purgatory your self But if the worst come to the worst it is but inrolling your self a Brother of St. Simons Scapular and then if you should go to Purgatory the Virgin Mary hath ingaged her self if Pope Iohn XXII doth not foully bely her to come down to Purgatory every Saturday night and pull up every Soul thence that hath worn this sacred Vestment into the holy hill of eternal Life And when a Fryars Cord or Rochet or String of Beads are such excellent tools for Men to work out their Salvation with what need they trouble themselves to bring forth the Fruits of Repentance had these things been only the Conceits of some particular Members of that Church I should not have mentioned them in this place because to us they cannot but look extreamly ridiculous but alas they are Cheats that have been founded and established on the Bulls of their Popes avowed and contended for by their gravest Doctors and reverenced and believed by the devoutest Members of their Communion And how can they be obliged to bring forth the Fruits of Repentance who are furnished with so many pretty Devices to get to Heaven without them 3. And lastly Hence therefore let us all be persuaded heartily to comply with this Injunction and bring forth the natural Fruits of Repentance first to form a hearty and deliberate Resolution against our Sins and then to put it into Execution by forsaking all ungodliness and worldly lusts and living soberly and righteously and godly in this present World I do not deny but in this undertaking there are many times very great Difficulties especially when we first enter upon it when after a long Course of Folly we begin to reform for then we must wrestle against our own Inclinations and struggle with inveterate Habits and this perhaps will put us to a greater tryal of our Courage and Constancy than we are now aware of But if upon a due consideration of the Arguments on both sides we can but once persuade our selves to a through Resolution of Amendment in all probability we have broke the heart of the main Difficulty of Repentance It is I confess a hard thing for a Man to persuade himself against all his Habits and Inclinations to resolve without any reserve in Cold and Deliberate thoughts upon an universal Reformation at once to resolve to bid adieu forever to all his darling Lusts and their appendant Pleasures This as our Saviour describes it is like the cutting off of a right Hand and the plucking out of a right Eye and therefore must doubtless be attended with vehement Struglings and Reluctances but when this is done the sharpest Pang of our Repentance is over and if now we do not wilfully miscarry these our bitter Throws like the Mother's will soon conclude in Songs and Magnificats For by arming a firm Resolution against them we have already broken the main strength of our Lusts so that now we have nothing to do but to pursue our Victory and if we have but the Courage to keep the ground we have gotten and to stand firm to our Resolution that so our conquered Foe may not be able to rally and reinforce himself against us we shall soon be crowned with the Joys of a Victory that will lead us into an everlasting Triumph For our evil Habits being for a while kept under a constant and severe Restraint will by degrees decay and languish and at last expire and then the Trouble of contending will be over and all our consequent Religion will be Sweet and Natural and Easie and we shall reap far more Pleasure and Delight from it than ever we did from the most jolly Course of Sinning For besides that a Religious Life is in it self more agreeable to our rational Faculties
proceed upon such Principles as if they prove false will leave us safe and at rest and if they prove true will leave us eternally happy 2. The upright Man walks in a plain easy and direct Way Those eternal Tracts of Righteousness and Goodness wherein he walks are so plainly characterized upon his Heart and Conscience by the Finger of God and described and inculcated in the divine Oracles with so bright a Sun-beam that if he honestly enquire he cannot miss them and when he hath found them he cannot easily swerve from them For whereas Wickedness is a boundless Wilderness whose Paths do all thwart and cross one another all Vices consisting in Extremes which are direct Contraries and being either the Defects or Excesses of some Virtue so that there are not only two Vices to every one Vertue but both are Extremes running counter to one another the Paths of Virtue lye straight forward between these vicious Extremes and like parallel Lines never interfere So that here a Man may walk on safely without any great Reach of Wit or laborious Diligence of Enquiry and needs do no more than follow Solomons Direction Let thine eyes look right on and let thine eye-lids look straight before thee Turn not to the right hand nor to the left Prov. 4. 24. 27. Here according to the Prophet is an high-way called the way of holiness the way-faring men tho' fools shall not err therein Isaiah 35. 8. And having so plain and direct a way before him he needs neither tire himself in the search of it nor rack his Brains with any anxious Deliberations in the Choice of it nor grate his Mind with Scruples and galling Regrets in the Pursuit of it but may always find it with Ease and follow it with Security 3. The upright Man acts openly and without fear of Discovery for being conscious to himself both that his Intentions are clear and his Prosecutions of them fair and honest he could be well enough content that he had a Window into his Breast that all the world might see through him He knows that his Thoughts and Actions are such as will endure sounding and bear sifting to the Bottom and therefore takes no care to disguise himself in false shews and Appearances For he who can reflect upon himself with Satisfaction and Complacency may look all the World in the face with Confidence and Assurance as knowing that the more curiously he is watch'd and the more exactly he is scanned the more highly he shall be approved by all that are wise and good And tho' his Reputation may for a while be clouded by Malice or Mistake yet he is fully satisfied that one time or other the very Light of Things will scatter these Mists and clear these Misprisions and that then he shall shine the brighter for being over-cast And being thus satisfied he walks openly through the World with a bare Face and in the sight of the Sun having no Occasion to Skulk into Coverts and Retirements 4. The upright Man lives in Peace with himself and in an amicable Accord with his own Reason and Conscience For he who follows his Reason and makes his Conscience his Guide as every upright Man doth can neither be reproached by the one nor condemned by the other And having to all his Aims and Actions the full Approbation of his Reason and Conscience in reiterated Ecchos resounding after him he hath always good Weather within and a clear Sky above him wherein his Mind breaths none 〈◊〉 and wholsome Thoughts and hath a 〈◊〉 Confidence and a chearful Satisfaction in every Thing he doth as being agreeable to his own Reason conformable to his Duty and worthy of himself And being thus crowned with the Applauses of his own Conscience he goes on through all the Difficulties of Life with Alacrity and Courage having nothing from within to countermand or controul him no Sting of Remorse for what he hath done nor Check or Strugling against what he is doing nothing to pull him back from his way or to cause him to halt in it or any way to disturb and distract him in his Motion And when at any time he is balk'd and defeated in any of his honest Designs and Prosecutions he goes on with an exact Mind under the Disappointment triumphing in the Integrity of his Heart and the Innocence of his Procedure having a Paradise within him where he lives at Ease and enjoys himself in Serenity and Peace let Things be never so stormy and tempestuous without 5. The upright Man is secure of the good Issues and Events of his honest Aims and Prosecutions Not that he is confident that Things shall always succeed according to his present Aims and Desires but this he is sure of that they shall always succeed as God would have them who is wiser than he and loves him better than he loves himself He is satisfied with this that God will never cross him but for very good Reasons such Reasons as if he himself did fully comprehend would make him heartily wish that God in his tender Mercy would cross and disappoint him and living under this Persuasion he is secure in his own Mind that he shall either have what he desires or something better in Exchange He builds upon this that if what he is projecting be good for him it shall certainly succeed according to his Wishes but that whether it be good for him or no God knows better than he and therefore if it doth not succeed it is well for him that it doth not because God certainly knew that it was not good for him that it should And to be disappointed of those Hopes which he fancies are good for him is a Thousand Times more for his Interest than to be gratified which God knows will be hurtful to him because he is certain both that he may be mistaken and that God cannot Wherefore let the worst that can arrive or that which through his Blindness and Folly he esteems the worst this he depends upon that matters being rightly stated he shall in the Issue of Things come off very well so as to be a Gainer in the foot of the Account and being thus persuaded his Mind is not harrased like other Mens with anxious Thoughts concerning the Event but let what will happen he goes on with a calm and satisfied Mind and embraces his Fortune with Satisfaction and Complacency 6. And lastly He hath a fair and glorious Prospect before him of the Issue and Events of all The Sense of his own Integrity and Uprightness hath raised him to a glorious Hope whereon he stands like Moses on the Top of Pisgah surveying the heavenly Canaan whose fruitful Soil abounds with every Good and flows with everlasting Pleasure From whence with joyful Eyes he sees the happy Period of his tedious March through this barren Wilderness of Life He sees the blisful Mansions and Abodes that the God of Love hath prepared to receive him he sees them most richly furnished with all the Delights that his vast hungry Desires can crave or swallow to eternal Ages He sees that there is nothing but a short momentary Death that like the River Iordan separates this Wilderness from that heavenly Land and that as soon as ever he hath past and forded this his Travel will conclude in endless Rest and Pleasure in the Accomplishment of all his Hopes and the full Satisfaction of all his Wishes With the Prospective of his Faith and Hope he beholds the illustrious Orders of Angels the glorious Company of Apostles the goodly Fellowship of Prophets the noble Army of Martyrs with Crowns of Glory and Blessedness on their Heads beckoning to him from the farther Shore to make haste thither and come into the joyous Participation of their Society and Happiness The sight of all which glorious Things inspires his Heart with such an Addition of new Life and Vigour as carries him on with Chearfulness and Alacrity through all the weary Stages of his Life for he who walks with Heaven in his Eye is a Thousand Times happier in his Expectation than if he had all the Goods this World affords in his Possession The upright Man therefore having this blessed Expectation before him he goes on with a bold and secure Mind and in his Course is steadfast and immovable always abounding in the Work of the Lord for as much as he knows that his Labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Seeing therefore the vast Advantages Integrity and Uprightness hath of Double-dealing as we tender our own Ease and Security let us all study for the Future to lead the Remainder of our Lives in exact Sincerity and Simplicity of Heart which will not only extricate us from the greatest Difficulties and Perplexities of this present Life but also crown us with immortal Ease and Happiness in the Life to come Which God of his infinite Mercy grant to whom be Honour and Glory and Praise from this time forth and for ever Amen FINIS Books Printed for Walt. Kettilby at the Bishop's head in St. Paul's Church-yard DR Scott's Christian Life 4 Vol. 8º Mysteries in Religion vindicated or the Filiation Deity and Satisfaction of our Saviour asserted against Socinians and others with occasional Reflections on several late Pamphlets by Luke Milburn a Presbyter of the Church of Engl. Allen's Works 4 Vol. 8º Of Trust in God or a Discourse concerning casting our Care upon God in all our Difficulties together with an Exhortation to patient suffering for Righteousness in a Sermon on 1 Pet. 3. 14 15. by Nath Spinks M. A. a Presbyter of the Church of England A Discourse concerning Lent in Two Parts the first an Historical Account of its Observation the second an Essay concerning its Original this subdivided into Two Repartitions 1 st Preparatory and shews that most of our Christian Ordinances are derived from the Jews the 2d conjectures that Lent is of the same Original by George Hooper D. D. Dean of Canterbury and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty 8o. An Essay to revive the antient Charity and Piety wherein God's Rights in our Estates and our Obligation to maintain his Service Religion and Charity is demonstrated and defended against the Pretences of Covetousness and Appropriation in Two Discourses written to a Person of Honour and Virtue by George Burghope Rector of Little Gaddesden in the County of Hertford and Chaplain to the Right Honorable Iohn Earl of Bridgewater 8.
the Charms of pathetical Oratory To be able therefore to word our Prayers in proper and ready Expressions is of considerable Advantage to our Devotions our Words being so apt to affect our Minds and our Passions to keep time with the Musick of our own Language and whilst we wear these Bodies about us and our Souls are so clogged and depressed with fleshly Desires we have need enough to use all Arts and Advantages of spiriting and enlivening our Devotions But yet I confess of all these bodily Exercises this is the least considerable in Religion because we may easily supply the Defect of natural Fluency by excellent Forms of Prayer the Use of which is doubtless far more expedient than the best of our extempore Effusions For he that uses a Form hath nothing else to do in Prayer but only to recollect his own Thoughts and fix them upon God and to keep his Mind affected with a due Sense of the Divine Majesty and his own Need of and Dependance upon him whereas he that prays extempore besides all this is concerned to invent proper and apt Expressions lest he should be impertinent or indecent in his Addresses unto God unless he expects that the Spirit should immediately dictate to him the Words of his Prayer which is to suppose himself a Person immediately inspired and his Prayer of Divine Revelation and consequently of equal Authority with the Scriptures themselves But the best Religious Use that can be made of Fluency and Volubility of Speech is in speaking to others of God and Things Divine here it is useful indeed to make a Man an Orator for Religion and to enable him to recommend it more effectually to others Thus far therefore this sort of bodily Exercise may be profitable both as it may be made instrumental to raise our own Devotions and to propagate true Piety unto others but beyond this I know no place at all that it hath in Religion for there is no doubt but we may be very good Men without this Gift of Fluency and very bad Men with it there being no Necessity of Consequence from an honest Heart to a voluble Tongue And certainly that which proceeds from no higher Principle than meer natural Enthusiasm and consequently may be easily attained by Persons grosly hypocritical and debauched ought not to be looked upon as a Mark of Godliness And yet alas how many Men are there that place all their Religion in their Tongues and esteem it as a certain Sign of Grace that they are able to pray in fluent Expressions and to talk of God in rapturous Flights of Fancy For they being most commonly straitned in their Religious Exercises and not able to vent themselves with any Freedom or Readiness when they fall into an extraordinary Fit of Fluency and Enlargement of which they can give no natural Account they presently conclude it to be an immediate Gift of God's Spirit and a special Token of his peculiar Favour to them And accordingly if you peruse the late Histories of the spiritual Experiences of our modern Converts you will find that they contain little else but strange Relations of their rapturous Discourses and wondrous Enlargements in Frayer which because they have something extraordinary in them are generally thought to be the immediate Effects of the Divine Spirit whereas commonly they proceed meerly from the present Temper of the Body and are as mechanical as any other Operations of Nature For let a Man's Body be but put into a fervent Temper his Spirits into quick but manageable Motions this will naturally produce in him a more fine and exquisite Power of Perception by causing the Images of Things to come faster into his Fancy and to appear more distinct there and then his Fancy being more pregnant with new Idea's and Images than it uses to be his Expressions must necessarily be more fluent and easie But then if when this natural Fervour of his Temper be intended with Vapours of heated Melancholy his Fancy be but often impressed and rubbed upon with the most vehement and moving Objects of Religion such as God and Christ and Heaven and Hell it must necessarily raise in him great and vehement Passions and dictate to him pathetick and rapturous Expressions And this hath been commonly experimented by the Devoto's of all Religions for even among the devouter Turks and Heathens we may find as notorious Instances of those Incomes and Enlargements as in any of our modern Histories of Christian Experiences Thus the Heathen Poets in all high Flushes of their Fancy conceited themselves divinely inspired Est Deus in nobis agitante calescimus illo And that great Orator Aristides positively affirms himself to be inspired in his Orations because sometimes he felt in himself an extraordinary Vein of Fluency which was only excited by a brisker Agitation of his Spirits Wherefore it is not at all to be wondered at if when Men are employed in Religious Exercises the same natural Enthusiasm especially when it is exalted by Religious Melancholy should so wing and inspire their Fancies For there is no Man whatsoever that is but religiously inclined and of a soft and impressive Temper but by familiarizing his Fancy to the great Objects of Religion and setting them before his Mind in distinct and affecting Idea's may easily chafe himself into such a Pathos as to be able to talk to or of God and Religion in lofty and rapturous Strains of Divine Rhetorick nor is it any Argument of such a Man 's being inspired that his Discourse doth so move and affect those that hear him because all Language that is soft fluent and pathetical is naturally apt to make deep Impressions on the Auditors For even the Grecian Sophists as Plutarch tells us by their singing Tones and honied Words and effeminate Phrases and Accents did very often transport their Auditors into a kind of Bacchical Enthusiasm And no doubt but the Hearers of whom he speaks who were wont to applaud their Orators at the End of their Declamations with a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 divinely heavenly preciously unimitably spoken found themselves as much moved as many a Man doth at a Sermon who yet thinks it is not the Art of the Preacher but the Spirit of God speaking in and by him that warms and excites them Wherefore as we would not deceive and undo our own Souls let us have a great care that we do not place our Religion in any such Enthusiastick Fervors of Spirit and Overflowings of Fancy for though this may be a helpful Instrument to us in our Religious Exercises yet it is not by this that we are to estimate the Goodness of them but by those Laws and Circumstances which do moralize humane Actions and render them reasonable and holy and good For 't is not in loud Noises or melting Expressions that the divine Spirit is discovered but in a divine Nature and God-like Disposition and the Effects of true Religion are not to be look'd for in